Personal Narrative: My Underserved My Life

After years of hard work and prerequisite classes, I finally received my acceptance into school. Nursing was finally within my grasps, but it felt like something was missing. After talking to friends and family, I was still in what felt like a liminal phase until I got an email. It plainly read, “Congrats on your acceptance, we knew you could do it! Let us know if we can help. Sincerely, Katie from G.B.” As succinct as the email was, I was reminded of my time in the Global Brigades. It was with that amazing group that I helped villages across Panama receive basic healthcare and other vital services. Furthermore, it reminded me of my experience tutoring and volunteering throughout my life. These experiences working with underserved communities
taught me aspects of care and compassion that were unmatched. My involvement left me with a feeling of accomplishment along with something else—a desire to bring my passion and experience working with those in need to my nursing career.
As great as it is to help out everyday people, it’s better helping those in need.
Throughout my life it has been an instinct to help out underserved populations. In Boys Scouts, I would volunteer to organize soup kitchen and food drives. I took this mentality into my collegiate career where I worked to bring meaningful aid to those in need. While I was vice president of my rugby club, I made an effort to have everyone in the club perform some form of community service. We worked with the animal shelters and local food pantries to bring care to those in need, all the while listening and developing ways to effectively help
them.
Eventually I had to step down due to other commitments—one of them being my time working with student athletes. I was recruited and hired to work as a tutor at the Stevenson Center at Syracuse University with my focus on at risk athletes. Students I worked with came from broken homes and orphanages causing them to have trust issues with both the educational system and people of authority. One of my students, Shy, had a mother who gave him up as a child and grew up in an underserved community. At times, he wouldn’t listen to me and I couldn’t get impatient or upset because it was completely understandable. I didn’t come from where he came from, nor did I even have an idea of what he was going through. However, that didn’t stop me from trying.
Whether he would say one word or many, I always listened.
I made sure that I didn’t treat him any less than how I would treat myself. When Shy talked about unfair professors or tough coaches, I gave him advice and never overstepped my bounds as a tutor. Eventually we built a relationship of trust which propelled him to get off academic probation and onto the dean’s list. Shy is just one example of the students I worked with throughout my time as a tutor. While he was not the easiest student to work with, I have had the opportunity to work with individuals with similar if not more difficult upbringings than Shyheim. Nevertheless, I treated each one of them with the utmost respect to show that I was truly invested in their
well-being.
My work at the Stevenson Center did not go unnoticed. Many of the students and professors alike requested me as a tutor for struggling students. Eventually, one of the coordinators suggested I apply to be part of the Global Brigades—without hesitation I applied. The organization prided itself on providing lasting change to underserved areas across the globe and I wanted to be an integral part of it. After receiving my letter, I found out that I wasn’t only accepted into the program and to the Syracuse University chapter, but also to the Leadership Conference in Panama. In the summer of 2016, I traveled to Panama where we traveled to villages across the country to help communities plagued by inadequate healthcare and human rights issues. It was surprising to learn while the people we helped weren’t necessarily struggling day to day, they lacked amenities I took for granted.
One family especially put this in perspective. We were helping them get both their medical and financial affairs in order when we learned their story. It was a grandfather and two kids—a boy and a girl who were separated from their birth mother due to abuse. These kids had gone through what no child should ever go through—an abusive parent and horrific living conditions. Thankfully, there were people like the Global Brigades and myself to help transform their lives for the better. We got them the inoculations they needed and a new lease on life with a grandfather who truly cared.
Working with the Global Brigades solidified what I already knew—I wanted to help people medically, but I also had a niche for working with those in need. Experience through tutoring, healthcare abroad, and rugby opened my eyes to what changes need to be made in the world and in my own backyard. Furthermore, my time with these organizations showed me that I am capable of making a positive change.